With the growing habit of living at home, stay safe, the idea of ​​a cloudy kitchen or virtual kitchen or ghost kitchen has grown rapidly. The increasing trend of online deliveries has accelerated the growth of cloud kitchen.

It is a typical kitchen that promotes online delivery with no dine-in or a seating arrangement. You just need to click on food pictures, Order it and its on your hand. Food aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats etc. are working with and use other mobile-based applications to accept online orders. With the rising trend of a cloud kitchen, the future seems bright and realistic keeping in mind the current scenario.

The Business model of cloud kitchen:
The kitchen that accepts online orders outside of any restaurant is a cloudy kitchen, with basic kitchen function, it accepts orders from various food ordering sites like Swiggy, Zomato, Food panda etc.

Step-by-step guidance before starting a cloud kitchen
A kitchen that accepts orders online without any dine-in facility is a cloud kitchen, with the operations of a base kitchen, they accept orders from various food ordering platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Food panda etc.

Location: very easily set up in 250–300 sq. space a cloud kitchen does not require a prime location. Unused parking lots, the backside of markets etc. Whatever the location may be hygiene and sanitation are the main concerns. Good customer demands are the essentials of a cloud kitchen.

Licences: One has to apply for a couple of licences in the first month to save oneself from any hassle that might arise later.

The license include:

• FSSAI license
• GST registration
• Municipal Health and trade license
• Fire license etc

Kitchen equipment, raw materials and Packaging: The kitchen equipment required would depend on the kind of cuisine served. The Storage boxes, containers, refrigerators, chimneys and other things are utmost importance in setting up the cloud kitchen. Packaging plays an important role in this field as the physical presence is not there. Hence to avail orders in the future, one must make the packaging more and more attractive with the respective logos and telephone numbers on the food boxes.

Staff requirement: A minimum of five employees is required, where the chef plays the most important role. The other staffs include helpers. At least two delivery boys and one at the counter for receiving telephonic orders are required. You can also have a partner with the third-party delivery services which work on a per order basis.

Staff uniform: Although no specific uniform is required, to maintain the protocol one must stick to a dress code, masks, gloves, caps etc. are some basics one must always use to maintain health, hygiene and sanitation.

Mobile phone and other miscellaneous items: A broad line, high speed and good connectivity of the internet, stationery items, chairs, and small counters are some of the requirements of a cloud kitchen. The subscription facility is very beneficial to make sure that no calls are missed.

Once the basic preparation is done, staff, kitchen, equipment etc. are all set one needs to focus on the marketing of the brand, at least initially till one creates a name in this industry. Make your cloud kitchen & list it with online food aggregators becomes extremely important as they have already a database of customers ready and waiting for you. Once you have submitted the details of your restaurant, the verification will be done and you can easily get connected.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a cloud kitchen:

• In today’s era, the cloud kitchen is a blessing, when we are ordering online; that saves us from the cost of setting up an expensive restaurant with fine dining facilities.
• Overheads are less, you cut on the cost of electricity, staff etc. It is easy to set up at a low cost and it has provided work to many people with less financial aid.
• Customer service can easily be managed with a large number of food aggregators at work.
• There is inconvenience in delivery sometimes but it can be solved easily and quickly.
• In case of a delay, The Compensation is available which is given to customers.
• With Cloud-kitchen, there has been great scope of expansion if you have a good customer base set up when tie-up with any food aggregators.

There is no interaction with the customers. Besides being easily set up, the cloud kitchen lacks customer interaction. A large population remains untouched as it caters only to the tech-savvy crowd; people not using mobile based applications are totally unaware of this new and upcoming concept.

Billing Software needed for a cloud kitchen

To manage order entry, recipe costing, tracking, and documentation of inventory are the main problems for the food sector. PosEase is a Restaurant billing software that allows you to quickly manage dine-in, takeout, and delivery orders. PosEase allows managing Online Orders from Multiple Channels like Swiggy, Zomato etc.

• With Centralized Dashboard, you can manage Entire online Orders.
• Accept/Reject orders right from the POS.
• The POS manages all the outlet status and online menu.
• Option to turn individual items on/off.
• The Kitchen display system will manage the orders by speeding up which is prepared together.

PosEase – Inventory management system is simple to use and helps track pilferage and losses. Use our PosEase Analytics app to track live sales metrics from anywhere. Our Restaurant Management Software has solved the problem of restaurant industry by developing its software with different Modules. You can get started with our free plan!